McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, 5 x 23g
Nobody eats one whole. The icing lifts off the base in a piece, which is why a bowl of these ends up as a bowl of bare biscuit with every swirl gone. Chocolate carried in hard sugar icing can only arrive as sweetness with a cocoa note behind it, since there is no fat and no chocolate mass to give it any weight, so a child meets what they were after and an adult meets a sugar shape. Five sealed packets, one each. Wheat in it, and the pack declaration covers the rest.
McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, in brief.
McVitie's 5 x Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits is five sealed packets of tiny plain biscuit bases under a hard piped icing swirl.
The swirl is larger than the base it sits on, which is why children eat the icing off first and why the base contributes crunch rather than flavour. The packets matter: a hard piped icing goes tacky in damp air. Never dunk them, because sugar icing dissolves on contact rather than softening.
The base is a tiny plain disc. The icing is a piped swirl sitting on top of it that is, by volume, larger than the biscuit underneath. Every child who has ever been handed a packet of these worked that out within about four seconds and ate the icing off first, which is not bad manners, it is a correct reading of where the product is. The base contributes crunch and very little else, and it is meant to: anything with real character down there would be competing with the only component anyone is interested in.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind The Pack
Iced Gems have been a fixture of British childhood for long enough that most adults have a memory attached to them, and this chocolate flavour version follows exactly the same logic as the original swirl. The format is the interesting part. Five sealed packets is a lunchbox decision rather than a tea-table one, and on this particular product the sealing matters more than it might appear. A hard piped icing is hygroscopic: it pulls moisture out of damp air and goes tacky, and a tacky Iced Gem has lost the crack that is the whole of its texture. The packets keep five portions in condition where an open bag would lose them all at the same rate.
The other thing worth being straight about is the size. These are small biscuits in small packets and they are eaten by the handful rather than one at a time, which is deliberate. A single Iced Gem is not an event. A handful is, briefly, and then it is over, and that is the honest shape of the product.
What we will not tell you is how many gems are in a packet or where the chocolate flavour sits, in the icing or in the base, because neither is published at product level and we would rather say nothing than estimate. The ingredient panel, the nutrition table and the allergen statement are on the current UK pack in the same way.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- The pack that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe for another market.
- Five packets is more packaging per gram than a single bag would be, and here it is doing a real job, because a hard icing exposed to damp air goes tacky and a tacky packet tends to be left rather than eaten. The test remains whether the packets actually leave the house.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, 5 x 23g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind McVitie's
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
The honest advice on any hard-iced biscuit is to keep the hot drink at a distance. Sugar icing does not soften gradually, it dissolves on contact, and on this product the icing is not a feature you can afford to lose.
The Lunchbox Packet
The Adult Reading
Made with this tea
The Lunchbox Packet
How to make The Lunchbox Packet with McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour.
- 1 sealed packet
- A carton of cold milk
- Pack it sealed and let it be opened at the table. The seal is what keeps the icing hard.
- Send cold milk rather than anything hot; the icing survives cold and not hot.
- Expect a handful eaten at once rather than one at a time. That is the design.
What you'll end up with: A packet that arrives with the crack intact, which an open bag cannot promise.
The Adult Reading
How to make The Adult Reading with McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour.
- 1 packet
- 1 bag plain black tea
- 200ml water at a full boil
- Steep three minutes and take it unsweetened. The icing supplies the sugar in one hit.
- Eat the packet dry alongside, never in the cup.
- Stop at one packet. There is no depth here to explore and none is claimed.
What you'll end up with: A memory, delivered honestly, without pretending it is a tea biscuit.
A Cake Top That Works
How to make A Cake Top That Works with McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour.
- 2 packets
- A set, dry-topped cake
- Wait until the topping has set firm and dry; icing on a wet surface goes tacky in minutes.
- Press them in lightly, base down, rather than scattering them.
- Add them at the last moment before the cake goes out.
What you'll end up with: The one genuinely useful kitchen job these do, and they do it very well.
What Not To Do With Them
How to make What Not To Do With Them with McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour.
- The five packets
- A dry cupboard
- Do not tip them into a hot drink. The icing dissolves and the base alone is not worth eating.
- Do not fold an opened packet over and keep it. Finish it; damp air takes the crack away.
- Do not store the box in a steamy kitchen. Check the swirl rather than the base for tackiness.
What you'll end up with: Five packets that all crack the way the first one did.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 399 kcal |
| Fat | 3.2g |
| of which saturates | 1.3g |
| Carbohydrate | 86.2g |
| of which sugars | 50.7g |
| Fibre | 1.7g |
| Protein | 5.4g |
| Salt | 0.65g |
Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains wheat (gluten) and milk, and it may contain soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this product: Sugar, Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium, Niacin, Iron, Folic Acid, Thiamin), Palm Oil (Certified Sustainable), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Raising Agent (Sodium Bicarbonate), Salt, Milk Protein, Natural Cocoa Flavouring, Caramelised Sugar Syrup.
Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Piped icing swirl | most of the volume | Set hard rather than soft, so it cracks under the teeth and then dissolves rather than melting. It is larger than the base it sits on and carries effectively all of the sweetness. |
| Plain biscuit base | a small disc | Crunch rather than flavour, and deliberately so. Anything assertive here would compete with the only component the product is actually selling. |
| Pack format | 5 x 23g | Five sealed packets, 115g in total. The product title carries the weight of a single packet rather than the pack, which is worth knowing before you order. |
Pack: McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, 5 x 23g; five sealed packets of iced gems, 115g in total. Best before the date printed on the pack. Keep the packets sealed and the box dry.
The pack total follows from the published packet count and packet weight.
Sourcing & blend. McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, 5 x 23g is the chocolate flavour reading of a biscuit that has been a fixture of British childhood for decades, and the defining feature is the ratio rather than the recipe. Nothing else in this range carries as much icing for as little biscuit: the piped swirl is larger by volume than the disc it sits on, which is why children work out within seconds that the icing is where the product is. The five-packet format is a lunchbox decision, and on this product the sealing does real work, because a hard piped icing is hygroscopic and goes tacky in damp air far faster than a biscuit goes soft. The pack you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe.
What is in McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, 5 x 23g, and what is not:
- In: tiny plain biscuit bases under a hard piped icing swirl in a chocolate flavour, in five sealed packets.
- No chocolate coating: this is a flavoured sugar icing rather than a chocolate one, and it behaves like sugar icing in a hot drink, which is to say it dissolves.
- No location stated for the flavour: the pack name says chocolate flavour without saying whether it sits in the icing or the base, and we do not fill that gap with a guess.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, 5 x 23g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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